There have been numerous cases of motor vehicle traffic stops by law enforcement which have resulted in serious injuries and even death. Generally, law enforcement officers have become increasingly suspicious when approaching a vehicle that may have just been stopped for an alleged traffic violation, such as speeding, expired registration, and the like. During these stops, law enforcement officers approaching the driver's side or passengers side of the vehicle need to request identification documentation from the driver and/or passenger(s). This request for identification documentation generally requires the driver and/or the passenger to have to reach into their pants pockets or shirt pockets, or jackets or under their seats or into their glove boxes to obtain their identification documentation.
Depending upon the circumstances, whether it be at night, at lonely stretches of the road, etc. the law enforcement officers can become increasingly suspect of the driver and/or passenger intentions. This suspicion can be heightened when the law enforcement officers are not able to see the hands of the driver and/or passenger while they reach to retrieve their identification documentation.
In recent years there have been an increasingly amount of serious harmful accidents have occurred where the officers shot and either injured or killed the driver or the front seat passenger based on misreading the driver and/or the passenger's intentions. This heightened sense of suspicion by officers has increased substantially in recent years based on mistakes by the law enforcement officers when interpreting the actions of drivers and/or their passengers that are stopped. Also, this heightened sense of suspicion by law enforcement has also increased based on the increasing amount of harmful attacks on law enforcement officers, as well as the increase in persons possessing firearms on or near their person.
The conflict that occurs is that the driver and/or front passenger needs to provide identification documentation promptly to the law enforcement officer in a safe manner without being shot, and without raising the suspicion that they are a threat to the law enforcement officers by allowing their hands remain visible during the retrieval of the identification documentation.
Thus, the need exists for solutions to the above problems with the prior art.